i kind of dislike the mental framework that the now-common ao3 tagging system puts the fanfiction reader on. like i'm going to react a lot differently to a story tagged #dubious consent than a story that simply presents it or that leaves the consent ambiguous, for the reader to form their own opinions. and it's a premise i enjoy so this isn't even that i am coming in with preconcieved negative notions (although i do have those, me, the notorious au hater, and yet i am sure i have read great aus in the past) but that i am coming in with notions at all. idk. on the reader's side it's like it takes away the element of discovery and on the writer's side it's kind of like inviting a way of thinking about your story as a product that needs to be dissected, categorized, psycho-analyzed, chopped up for parts and marketed. idk i liked that ff.net rewarded adventurousness and word of mouth which in turn encouraged commenting culture. i am glad that "writer has chosen not to use warnings" is becoming more of a thing but i can't help but worry that my fic won't have enough "reach" and someone looking for, say, dubious consent kink, someone at the market of fic, with a shopping list for efficiency's sake, is going to miss my little masterpiece because i have refused the tagging system that is there as a convenience for them to find me, but in that convenience we both give away a lot and i don't know that it is worth it. bazaar vs retail sort of